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Crowds Gather To Watch Coffin Of Queen Elizabeth Pass By; King Charles III Proclaimed As Monarch Across U.K.; Remembering Queen Elizabeth II; Russia Withdraws From Key Areas Amid Ukraine Counteroffensive; Nation Marks 21st Anniversary Of 9/11 Terror Attacks. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 11, 2022 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:05]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta.

Queen Elizabeth's final journey has begun. Today for the last time she departed her favorite home in Balmoral. Her casket traveling through the beautiful Scottish countryside across bridges, hills, glens, villages. She was met by crowds of mourners and admirers along the way, and at her destination Scotland's capital of Edinburgh, the cobblestone streets of the royal mile packed with somber subjects waiting to pay their respects. From there she was carried into the throne room at the Scottish residence of the British royal family.

Tomorrow the Queen's coffin will be taken in procession to St. Giles' Cathedral where it will rest and so Tuesday before moving to Buckingham Palace in London.

And joining me now CNN anchor and correspondent Richard Quest.

Richard, great to see you, sir. Thanks so much. Talk to me about what's been called Queen's last great journey. These amazing scenes we've been seeing all day long. It's just being very stirring.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Jim, I couldn't really put it better than the beautiful instruction you did at the start of the program. The majesty of the moment was truly captured by the size of the crowds here in Edinburgh, but also, by the way in which people came out on the streets on the route. Just small villages, little towns where you thought there weren't many people but they all came out to see the Queen pass.

And then we did get to see some of the most beautiful of Scottish countryside and that's why the royal family adores Scotland and Balmoral where they have holidayed here for decades. In fact the Queen would spend six, seven weeks of summer holidays here in Balmoral every year.

ACOSTA: And Richard, earlier, as the Queen's coffin was traveling to Edinburgh, Charles III was being proclaimed the king in Scotland, I should say, Wales and Northern Ireland. And let's watch some of those moments. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God save the king.

CROWD: God save the king.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three cheers for his majesty the king. Hip, hip --

CROWD: Hooray.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hip, hip --

CROWD: Hooray.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hip, hip --

CROWD: Hooray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: These scenes are just incredible. Richard, seeing how the crowds have reacted to the new king it seems he's off to a very strong start with the British people.

QUEST: Absolutely. There's a huge groundswell of support and encouragement and well-wishing because this is a man who we've all know, I mean, look, I'm British. We've all known for our entire lives as well. He is in his 70s. So we know Charles. We know he's been waiting for this moment. Now it has arrived. I think there's going to be a huge element of support and encouragement.

What's interesting about the process that you've just shown is that in feudal times, historic times, this was necessary, Jim, because you had to show the various nations of the United Kingdom that there was a new king and this was the person that your local lord lieutenant or your local peer lord realm was supporting. So it was very significant. Today of course in modern communications that's not the reason.

But I think it's still just as significant for the simple fact you need to show the national regions of this country, United Kingdom of Great Britain, which is Wales and Scotland, and England and Northern Ireland, that they matter, that they're not just one big globules mad group. But instead we're going to go, we're going to proclaim in each individual country and capital city to prove that they are important. That was the significance.

[16:05:05]

ACOSTA: Certainly. And it's just a remarkable turning of the page. And speaking of that, I have to ask you about these images we saw yesterdays of Princes William and Harry, with their wives, greeting the mourners outside Windsor Castle. What did you think of that?

QUEST: The Queen would have been delighted. Charles must have been extremely grateful that there appeared to be a burying of disagreements and disputes. However, however, Jim, there is still the book that Harry has written that still has to come out. There is still deep disagreements and animus between the various families. So whilst there is a rapprochement I would hate to say there's a full detente, and I would be looking to see -- let's see how this pans out.

They have agreed to be nice, to be together for their grandmother's funeral, but I think anybody who thinks this is a complete heal in a rift I think they'll be mistaken.

ACOSTA: It's going to take some time, I imagine, but they did it for their grandmother today and that I think is going to go a long way over where you are.

Richard Quest, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Great insights as always.

Joining me now is the former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth, Charles Anson.

Charles, I am so sorry for your loss and I'm just wondering when we look at these images that we were just showing our viewers a few minutes ago I can't imagine what is going through your mind. There must be so many thoughts but what's on your mind?

CHARLES ANSON, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II: Well, first of all, sadness which I feel the Queen passing after such a long and spectacularly good and steady reign so there is that sadness. But there is also a sense of tremendous admiration for the job that she's done so steadily over 70 years in a vastly changing society from the second world war to now.

And carrying the responsibilities as head of state, and being a very accessible leader, constitutional head of state, that has all been very good and I think the steadying influence of the crown is important, and I think as Richard Quest said it's important for the monarchy to be seen to be, seen to be relevant, to all parts of the United Kingdom. And although it's a hereditary institution, the British monarchy, they need support from a wide number of people. It is important that it has that support.

ACOSTA: And do you think King Charles can -- yes, no, please continue.

ANSON: No. Carry on.

ACOSTA: Well, I was just going to ask you, do you think King Charles can ever hope to achieve the same level of admiration that the Queen had?

ANSON: I think that is quite possible. I mean, he's had a 50-year apprenticeship as prince of Wales. He's made a huge difference in many areas of national life, helping young people, being on the right side of the climate change debate. And many other issues to do with improving society. I think our monarchy is basically about healing, gathering people together, being inclusive, and really working in a steady and modest way to make a slightly better society and I think it is a very popular institution despite its surrender to nature. And of course the media plays a great role in this. The monarchy is

very visible to everyone and I find it quite remarkable having worked for the Queen for seven years that she is by nature -- was by nature a very quiet, modest, straightforward person and yet she's acquired this tremendous reputation around the world where everybody respects her and enjoys being with her, seeing her, and so on and I think that's a remarkable thing in a constitutional head of state who's been there for 70 years. I mean, that's a lot of continuity which I think other countries in the world rather envy.

ACOSTA: No question. It's a remarkable achievement, and I have to ask you. And you know better perhaps than most people. I'm sure you heard the characterizations that she was very much a traditionalist when it came to her view of the monarchy, her the role as queen.

Do you think King Charles will carry on that tradition? You mentioned some of his pet causes and so on. Or do we think we might see him branch out a bit more than his mother?

[16:10:04]

ANSON: I think he will definitely want to carry on the work of the Queen and the support that the monarchy gives to different groups and different causes in society without getting involved in the politics. I think King Charles will want to do that, but he will have his own special interest that he will want to look at in terms of encouraging people and groups within society to make a better place of the United Kingdom.

And of course, to the rest of the world because don't forget he will also be king of 15 other countries. As well as this close relationship as head of the commonwealth with 55 countries around the world, over two billion people, so it's a very wide brief but the purpose throughout is to really make a bit of a better society. The Queen has done that outstandingly in her own steady way and I think King Charles has a passion for making the world a slightly better place.

Obviously the political system has to actually implement all these things but if you have the steady benign encouragement of a constitutional monarchy that interfere in politics but is ready to encourage. That is a great thing to have in a modern society. I think it brings people together and I think as well as the sadness, I think many people in this country, and Richard Quest caught that in the coverage of the procession of the Queen's coffin from Balmoral to Edinburgh, that this was a sad occasion but actually the beauty of celebrating a life of a great public figure who's done a marvelous job with a very low-key personality, but with a great sense of humor and a great sense of purpose is something that I think people are enjoying to remember.

And on her 21st birthday of course the Queen made a solemn pledge that whether her life was short or long she would devote it to the service of her people and that's exactly what she's done, and I think the prince of Wales now king will have that same outlook as his mother.

ACOSTA: And, Charles, do you have a favorite memory that you'd like to share?

ANSON: Well, I think what I would like to share is the sense not just of the Queen but of the Queen and Prince Philip, that marriage, that partnership. For someone like myself working for seven years as press secretary in the 1990s, it's quite a difficult time. It was marvelous to work really for two people, the Queen and Prince Philip, who had such a sense of the team and at the end of a very long day quite often we'd be able to sort of sit down with them both either on Britania or in a hotel suite, and just go over the day and enjoy it.

And some of the funny things that had happened, some of the unexpected things that had happened it was a real pleasure to work for them and I have heard heads of government and certainly British prime ministers say that whenever they went to see the Queen on the weekly audience or some other occasion they would often arrive very absorbed and concerned about something but would nearly always leave the Queen's office, feeling just slightly better.

The steadiness she offered. The huge experience she'd known every single American president from Harry Truman right up to this day. I think only Lyndon Johnson was unable to make a state visit because he was so busy but I think, you know, they lift the atmosphere and I think King Charles has that same diplomatic skill of being able to welcome people warmly and there's no political side to them so people can trust the members of the family in that way that they will be fair in the way that they make judgments and that makes a big difference.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, thank you very much for sharing those memories.

Charles Anson, former press secretary to the Queen, we thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

We're back in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:51]

ACOSTA: Let's go back to Scotland where right now Queen Elizabeth's coffin is resting in the throne room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Tomorrow King Charles III will lead a procession down Edinburgh's Royal Mile to St. Giles' Cathedral where there will be a service. From there the Queen's coffin will be flown to London where it will spend a day at Buckingham Palace before lying in state at the Palace of Westminster until her funeral on Monday, September 19th.

And here's a live look at Buckingham Palace tonight. Just looking beautiful as always, and our own CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour was there when the news of the Queen's death broke.

Christiane, great to have you. Can't think of anybody better to talk to you about all of this. I want to ask you a thousand questions but, you know, something like 80 percent of the people in the U.K. have only known this one queen. What was going through your mind as you watch the crowds come out? I mean, I guess this was a turning of the page but just so much bigger than that.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, you know, over the last several days, four days now, we've been round the clock and it's because this country has been so united in its quiet grief and mourning, and actually all over the world has been really, you know, pulled into this moment as well because similarly people all over the world, you know, only knew this one queen and so many people come to this country for the queen and for the monarchy.

So many tourists, for instance. American tourists. So several things, you know, pass through my mind today. I was at Buckingham Palace first of the day, and I think one that this is a woman who is being thanked now profoundly that the gratitude of the people is pouring out for a woman who said at the age of 21 that whether the life is long or short she would devote it to the service of the people and she certainly did.

Who can forget that very last picture of her at Balmoral when up until the very end she was doing her duty, in this case seeing off her 14th prime minister and welcoming in her 15. This was a constitutional prerogative that she did. So you have that part of it. Then you have the twin tragedies really that were being perhaps sadnesses to being commemorated today. One the Queen's, you know, first step of her final journey.

You saw the coffin for the first time out of the hearse being carried on the shoulders of eight men, military honor guard, and taken into that hall to lie in rest. And at the same time in the United States of America you have the commemoration of 9/11, 21 years later. And the President Biden who will come to the funeral said to the people -- he quoted Queen Elizabeth who back in 9/11 said that nothing any of us can say will assuage your pain, but, and this is her famous line now of course, but she said grief is the price you pay for love. And so I think those kind of -- those thoughts were going through my mind today.

ACOSTA: Absolutely, Christiane. And for 70 years the Queen was this icon of continuity, of stability really for the world. Even during times of instability, uncertainty, uncertainty for the royal family. She had to be that pillar of stability for her whole country.

Now Charles is taking the throne with so many issues going on. Is there's a new prime minister. Talking about breaking away from the commonwealth. How do you suspect he is handling things thus far and how bigger these challenges for him?

AMANPOUR: Well, I think they're big challenges. I think he will be given the so-called honeymoon period. But this is not just about the monarchy really. The reason there's this outpouring is because it's about the person. It's about Queen Elizabeth who transcended both the family and obviously politics, and the whole idea of partisanship. She transcended all of that by her presence and by the constitutional role of a monarch in this country. But I do think, you know, to that point today's a Sunday. And I say

that because the Queen was a woman of great faith, which she professed publicly. This is not a secret. She was a woman of great faith. And so on one issue this country in her 70 years of reign became a much more diverse, much more multi-cultural, multi-faith Great Britain. And all the faiths were represented on this Sunday in various sort of celebrations and commemorations.

And on the radio, for instance, there were leaders of the Jewish faith, different sects indeed, Indian -- in the Hindu faith, the Sikh faith and others. There were British Muslims. The Queen spent her reign visiting not just churches and opening schools and bridges and hospitals, and supermarkets and the like, but she also went to mosques and synagogues and temples and churches. And that was a big, big deal.

She didn't feel that being head of the Anglican Church, the Protestant church here, meant that it was at the exclusion of everything else. Far from it. And I think the same about the commonwealth. Yes, King Charles will face a great deal of, you know, centrifugal force right now as is possible that many more of these countries might want to discard the British monarch as their sovereign. Now exit the commonwealth but discard and have their own, you know, head of state.

ACOSTA: Right.

AMANPOUR: She went through this but she welcomed it. She never treated a commonwealth country as somehow, you know, needing to be punished for deciding they didn't want her as their head of state.

ACOSTA: Right.

AMANPOUR: And I think that's an important point to make as well.

ACOSTA: And we should mention, Christiane, you had the opportunity to meet the Queen when you were awarded a high honor for journalism. I mean, this should be the least surprising to anybody who knows Christiane Amanpour, of course.

[16:25:03]

But what do you remember from that moment? Do you remember anything from that moment?

AMANPOUR: I remember it really well. I remember buying what I thought was a nice white suit which ended up being really crumbled and not that nice. I remember bowing as you can just see and my sort of Leaning Tower of Piza hat which is a fabulous designer, but I don't think it looked great on me, in retrospect. I thought it was going to come off and poured on her, you know, at her feet.

But I really remember her graciousness obviously. You know, everybody talks about her amazing looks, and it's true. You know, she went from a brunette to a gray to a snow white and her skin, you know, was legendary and it really did look very, very soft and unlined despite her age at close up. So I thought that that was interesting that I was able to confirm for myself that everything people have written about her was absolutely true.

But I also thanked her for opening CNN's London bureau in 2001, shortly after 9/11 when she came to the bureau in London and she went to the BBC as well. They had a new building and she chose us, too, to open and to celebrate and I thought that was rather nice. So I thanked her for it.

ACOSTA: Well, I can't think of anybody better to represent CNN with the Queen.

Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much. Great to see you.

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Really appreciate it.

Coming up, Ukrainian flags are being raised across eastern Ukraine. Why is that important? Well, the military continues a very impressive counteroffensive against Russian troops. We'll take you to the region next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:09]

ACOSTA: It's been a week of victories for Ukraine and big losses for Russia the latest one, a key city liberated from Russian control Ukrainian forces took back the City of Izium on Saturday, a strategically important hub for Russia. Here's CNN Sam Kiley, as he reports from Ukraine.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there has been a remarkable 48 hours here in northeastern Ukraine, with the Ukrainians claiming to have recaptured many 1000 square kilometers from Russia including notably the town of Izium, which sits on the main road between Kharkiv and Kramatorsk. Kramatorsk, of course, still in Ukrainian hands, but very severely under pressure with a large number of villages and towns are being fiercely defended in that area.

But this Russian route is what it's starting to look like is quite extraordinary. They're very large amounts of material, have been left behind tanks intact. Armored personnel carriers, even drones and other sophisticated weaponry rapidly abandoned by the Russians as the Ukrainians have pushed hard here in the north of the country, coming off the back of the Kherson counter offensive, which is about of just over a week old may have drawn Russian troops off whatever the reality is, there's no doubt at all that this has been a major step forward from the Ukrainian perspective, probably second only to the successful defense of the capital Kyiv.

Now, at the same time, rather more worrying developments in the south of the country around Zaporizhzhia, Jim, where the nuclear power plant there has now been a shutdown. This follows a series of power cuts to the plant, which jeopardize the cooling systems in the reactors. Those reactors are now offline they are going to be shut down. They remain to be cooled, but they will be using diesel generators and what's called islanding their own capacity to generate electricity, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Sam Kiley, thank you. Russian strikes have left parts of eastern Ukraine in the dark. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says Kharkiv and Donetsk have lost power after Russian missile attacks. In Kharkiv, the mayor confirms the blackout was caused by a direct hit on an infrastructure facility. He also says some areas are without water.

Coming up, remembering 9/11 21 years later, look at the solemn tributes today at Ground Zero the Pentagon and Shanksville Pennsylvania, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:03]

ACOSTA: Today marks 21 years since the 9/11 terror attacks memorials were held in New York at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania honoring the almost 3000 people killed that day and vowing to never forget.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aldridge (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: David D. Alger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ernest Alikakos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Edward L. Allegretto.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eric Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joseph Ryan Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard Dennis Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Richard L. Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christopher E. Allingham.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anna S.W. Allison

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Janet Marie Alonso.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anthony Alvarado.

(MUSIC)

[16:40:07]

ACOSTA: And at the Pentagon President Biden said the U.S. has a duty to preserve American democracy that the terrorists tried to destroy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No terrorists could touch the wellspring of American power. And it falls to us to keep it safe on behalf of all those we lost 21 years ago, on behalf of all those who have given their whole souls to the cause of this nation everyday sense. That's a job for all of us. It's not enough to gather and remember, it's September 11. Those we lost more than two decades ago. Because on this day, it is not about the past.

It's about the future. We have an obligation, a duty or responsibility to defend, preserve and protect our democracy, the very democracy that guarantees the rights of freedom, that those terrorists at 9/11 sought to bury, and the burning fire and smoke and ash. And that takes a commitment on the part of all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And with me now is Brett Eagleson. He is the president of 9.11 Justice, which represents survivors and family members of the attacks. His father Bruce Eagleson, was in a meeting on the 17th floor of the South Tower when the first plane hit the North Tower. Bruce was last seen by one of his colleagues walking up the stairs of the South Tower as it burned. He wanted to make sure his 12 employees got out safely, all of them did. Brett, thank you very much for joining us on this somber day. Your thoughts, tell us what's on your mind on this 9/11?

BRETT EAGLESON, FATHER DIED IN 9/11: Well, thank you for having me. I think what's most and foremost on the minds of a lot of us today is that we finally have come to a to a spot in our lives, a spot in American history where we have a President, President Biden, who last year declassified per an executive order. He declassified 1000s of pages of FBI documents, which kind of trickled out from last September 2021 until present day.

And we've seen now firsthand, what we've been -- we've been shouting about for years is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia substantially supported the 9/11 hijackers. And now we have FBI reports, which prove that. These are no longer allegations. These are not our words. This is not my group's words. This is not my family's words. These are the FBI's own words, that there were at least a dozen Saudi government officials here in the United States, using their embassies and developing a support network for those hijackers to be successful.

So, I think we've had a lot of success. But I think there's still more work to be done. I think that we need to rewrite the official narrative of 9/11. It wasn't that, it was 19 hijackers, with no knowledge of English, no experience in Western culture, no money, no idea how to fly a plane. It wasn't that they were able to band together and pull off the most devastating and consequential attack in U.S. soil with absolutely no help from anybody. They did have help. And we're learning today that they had help from a Saudi support network. So, I think we've come a tremendous way. I want to thank President Biden for everything that he's done to bring us to this point.

ACOSTA: And Brett, you've been very outspoken about the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament holding events in the U.S. Some, I guess, held by the former President Donald Trump. Can you talk about that? What are your thoughts about that? I suppose you want these events banned? You don't want them taking place?

EAGLESON: Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. And we try as an organization, I want to be very clear to all the viewers. We try to be as apolitical as possible. When 9/11 killed us, it didn't kill us -- it didn't differentiate, right? Between the left and the right side of the aisle. We were the first group last year to tell President Biden to stay away from Ground Zero unless he honored his campaign promise to us, which was that if elected president, he would declassify the documents. Well, kudos to President Biden, because he did honor that campaign progress.

So, I don't want to be -- I don't want this taken out of context as if we're attacking one side or the other. But with President Trump or former President Trump rather, we have a situation where we have a former president who, by his own admission in 2016, when he was on the campaign trail, he is on record on Fox & Friends having said that it was the Saudis that knocked down the towers. They should open up those files, and those see that it wasn't the Iraqis, it was the Saudis that knocked down those towers. So, in 2016, the president presumed correctly that the Saudis did knock those -- that the Saudi government did knock down those towers.

[16:45:05]

Then in 2019 he met with myself, my mother and about a dozen other 9/11 family members with some FBI agents, former FBI agents with us on 9/11 in the White House. He shook our hands and said he was going to help us and that he was going to declassified these documents, some point along the line from 2019 until up until this point, up to a few months ago all of those promises and all those predictions I think the former president forgot about because he signed a significant contract with LIV Golf and he's now hosting the Saudi government golf tournament, Saudi government funded and backed golf tournament. He held it at his Bedminster course, and then there's one at the LIV -- at his Florida golf course towards the end of the year. So --

ACOSTA: And for the viewers -- and Brett just for the viewers who don't feel this as personally, as you do. I just want to -- I want to see if you wanted to say why these golf tournaments, concern you so much, concern other families so much.

EAGLESON: Because, you know, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never been held to account for any of its atrocities that it's committed all over the world. You know, you want to talk about the fact that they carpet bomb Yemen, the fact that they persecute and kill homosexuals. The fact that they sent their airman here to kill us in Pensacola, Florida, the fact that from, you know, 21 years ago, they never been held accountable for 9/11.

So, we don't want the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to feel like they can operate with impunity. And sponsor and fund these golf tournaments, which we believe is an attempt to distract from the atrocities that they commit from all over the world. They need to be held to account and need to be called out on what they're doing.

And what they're trying to do is they're trying to correct the record. They're trying to influence public opinion. They are lobbying our government. In fact, I think that the Trump Organization and all these live golfers should be registered under FARA, which is the Foreign Agent Registration Act. They're influencing American politics. So that's why it's dangerous. And I think that's why it should be stopped.

ACOSTA: All right, Brett Eagleson. We'll continue to follow the story. Thanks very much for being with us. And all of our best of your family on this very important day. Thanks for being with us, we appreciate it.

EAGLESON: Thank you for having me. Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:49]

ACOSTA: The Emmys are tomorrow night and Succession, HBO's dark comic drama about TV's most dysfunctional families looking to clean up with 25 nominations. CNN's Stephanie Elam has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's blood in the water, shots are coming.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the ruthless to the hopeful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know this school is rough but we make it.

ELAM: The Emmys are here ready to celebrate the best of the small screen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it will be revealed.

ELAM: HBO and HBO Max lead the way with a whopping 140 nominations. Media empire drama Succession snagging 25 of those noms and acting nods for essentially the entire cast. HBO like CNN is part of Warner Brothers discovery.

MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, TV EDITOR, VARIETY: Succession is a show that is beloved in this industry, partly because of parodies this industry so well.

ELAM: Well, it may be the show to beat don't count out newcomer Yellowjackets or Netflix thrillers Stranger Things and Squid Game.

SCHNEIDER: There's a good chance that Squid Game can kind of sneak in and be the first non-English language show to ever win Best Drama. Keep an eye on some of the actors from that show as well.

ELAM: Like Korean actress Jung Ho-Yeon who want a SAG Award for her portrayal in the survival drama.

JUNG HO-YEON, "KANG SAE-BYEOK" IN "SQUID GAME": It's just such an honor.

ELAM: Looking to score again in the comedy category is Ted lasso. Last year's big winner is up for 20 Awards, including Best Lead Actor for Jason Sudeikis who's also looking to repeat. Hoping to stop Ted Lasso is HBO's Barry. And Abbott Elementary, the surprise ABC hit has seven noms, including best comedy and lead actress for the show's creator, Quinta Brunson.

QUINTA BRUNSON, ACTRESS: It seems to have like put a bit of life back into just regular network TV.

SCHNEIDER: Because it is a rare broadcast hit in this day and age where everyone's talking about streaming and premium cable. Abbott Elementary is the perfect example of that, a breakout hit.

ELAM: But the category to watch some critics say is Limited Series with Pam and Tommy Dopesick inventing Anna, The Dropout and The White Lotus all with multiple nominations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to The White Lotus.

ELAM: Breakout star and acting nominee Marie Bartlett summing up the award season VOD.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's been pretty epic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: The Emmy is typically air on Sunday nights. But since NBC already has Sunday Night Football, the show is moving to Monday night, Jim.

ACOSTA: Thank you, Stephanie. And now here's this week's CNN Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to talk about putting the sheathing on the roof today.

NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER, FOUNDER & CEO, HOPE RENOVATIONS: Our students learn a little bit of everything. The basics like safety, tools and materials, construction math. And then we go into hands on stuff, carpentry, electrical, plumbing. 126 and three quarters.

So, our program is actually solving two problems at once. We're training women for living wage paying jobs in the construction trades.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is where it gets fun.

SPENCER: And we're also helping older adults age in place. That's really a win-win. You get to watch something come together that you built. That feel like it's going to work for you?

[16:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SPENCER: Great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is awesome.

SPENCER: There's just such a feeling of accomplishment if we don't see women out there doing this, other women they'll never see this as an opportunity, if you can't see it, you can't be it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And to see Nora's team in action and get the full story, go to CNN heroes.com. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)